Durham Region Transit making significant changes today Brian, January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 I live in Durham region and today DRT made several changes made to the schedules throughout the region. The reason for a lot of these changes is the fact there were several buses overcrowded on certain routes heading towards the Amazon facility and Durham College. Buses were running late a lot of the time as well. So these changes are designed to remove buses from least busy routes, and move some of the buses to the busy routes. For instance they shortened the 901 on Simcoe street during the day and replaced the northern part of the route with other buses. When the announcements were made about the service changes, there was a lot of negative feedback online. It was so bad that there was an article posted on DurhamRegion.com on December 18, 2023, and then posted a day later to the DRT website. The article detailed the changes and the reasoning behind these changes. I will say that I agree with some of the changes but I feel that some changes will not work the way they were intended. In Pickering the DRT suspended service on the 103, 110, and 120 but replaced by the new 121. The 121 route replaces portions of the 3 suspended routes. Two branches will operate: Weekdays: 121: Pickering Parkway Terminal to Pickering Station. Service will operate every 30 minutes between about 04:40 and 21:55. Weekends: 121B: Pickering Parkway Terminal to West Shore Boulevard / Oklahoma Drive. Service will operate every 30 minutes between about 06:48 and 19:40. In Ajax the 211 is suspended and service allocated to other routes. The 222 and 224A are also suspended and partially replaced by the new 227. The new route provides service between south Ajax and Ajax Station via Bayly, Audley, Finley, Clements, and Westney Road, replacing the 222 and 224A. Service will operate on weekdays: Between about 05:45 and 08:00, service will operate clockwise (Route 227A). Between about 16:10 and 18:40, service will operate counter clockwise (Route 227). Service will operate every 30 minutes. Also in Ajax the 291 is suspended so buses can be reallocated to other services. Alternate service available via 216, 224, PULSE 900, PULSE 916 and 920. Whitby has a lot of changes. The contracted service in Whitby came to an end on December 22 and has since been taken over by the region. The 301 service is suspended during middays as well as the 319. The 302 has a routing change in Oshawa by not traveling along Windfields Farm Drive. That section is replaced by the new extended 419. Oshawa sees a lot of changes especially around the Harmony Terminal, Durham college and Windfields Farms. Route 405 Routing Change Service will now begin and end at the Delpark Homes Centre, and will no longer serve Harmony Terminal. Customers wishing to access Harmony Terminal, may do so by transferring at Harmony Road and Conlin Road to the PULSE 916 or 920 on weekdays, and PULSE 916 on weekends. PULSE 916 will pick up and drop off customers on Harmony Road at Coldstream. Route 407 Routing Change Service will now begin and end at the Delpark Homes Centre, and will no longer serve Harmony Terminal. Customers wishing to access Harmony Terminal, may do so by walking from stops at Harmony Road and Coldstream Drive, or transferring to the 410, 419, or 920 at Harmony Road and Coldstream Drive. Trips on the 407C branch will no longer operate along Mary Street and Ormond Drive, between Taunton Road and Ritson Road. Route 409 Routing Change Route extended to Windfields Farm Drive and Simcoe Street via Garrard Road and Conlin Road. Service will operate two-way on Garrard Rd. The following branches will operate: 409: Oshawa Centre Terminal to Windfields Farm Drive and Simcoe Street, via Gibb Street, Burns Street, Garrard Road, Conlin Road, and Simcoe Street. 409A: Oshawa Centre Terminal to Windfields Farm Drive and Simcoe Street, via Simcoe Street, Garrard Road, Rossland Road, Stevenson Road, and Gibb Street. 409C: Oshawa Centre Terminal and Windfields Farm Drive and Simcoe Street, via Nichol Avenue, Glen Hill Drive, and Dundas Street. Saturday and Sunday Service will now operate on weekends from about 06:40 to 20:10, every 30 minutes. Late night trips will operate between about 21:50 and 23:15, every 60 minutes. This route will operate past the new Amazon facility connecting to routes such as the 905, 915 and 916 along the way. The 411 service is replaced by the 421 on weekdays. Servicing Oshawa Go Station and the Oshawa Centre. The 419 is a new route, replacing parts of the 905 and 302. It will operate from Harmony Terminal to Simcoe and Winchester. The 502 in Bowmanville is modified with the Westbound trips running all day but Eastbound will only run before 9 am and after 1:30. My assumption is the trips headed West will turn into a 902 headed to Oshawa. In Uxbridge there will be a new route. The 605 bus that connects from the 905 at Toronto st that will connect to the Zehrs and the shopping areas along the main stretch of the town. The Pulse and regional routes also see changes The 901 will see big changes as there will be no service north of the college during the week before 10pm. The route will operate during the week every 10 minutes along the common stretch of route, but every 20 minutes from Lakeview and 20 minutes from the Oshawa Centre. On weekends the bus will operate every 15 minutes until late evening and all trips will operate to Windfields farms. Anyone wishing to travel North of the college, can take the 905 instead. Route 905 Routing Change 905A trips will now begin and end at Windfields Farm Drive and Simcoe Street, instead of Harmony Terminal. Service along Britannia Avenue, Conlin Road, and Grandview Street will now be provided by NEW 419. Weekdays, Saturday, Sunday Schedule updated. Route 915 Service is extended to Conlin Road and Harmony Road via Townline Road and Conlin Road. No longer enters Harmony Terminal. Customer’s wishing to access the Harmony Terminal area may board and exit the bus at stops on Taunton Road at the Smart Centres Access Road. Please see map below. Weekdays, Saturday, Sunday Schedules updated. Route 916 Routing Change Routing extended to Conlin Road and Harmony Road via Harmony Rd. No longer enters Harmony Terminal. Customers wishing to access the Harmony Terminal area, may do so from stops on Harmony Road. Please see map below. Weekdays Service will operate every 20 minutes all day. Saturday and Sunday Schedules updated. Route 917 Routing Change Routing changed in Central Ajax to operate along Bayly Street and Westney Road, instead of Hunt Street and Dowty Street. Customers wishing to travel to the Hunt Street or Dowty Street areas, may do so, by: Walking from the 917 on Bayly Street. Transferring to the 224, which operates on Station Street. Weekdays Schedules updated. Route 920 and new 921 Route changed to operate via Thickson Road, instead of Garrard Road, between Taunton Road and Conlin Road. Weekdays Schedules updated. and the 921 will operate the same routing as the 920 but will run with limited stops. Service will operate express (no stops) between Kingston Road / Brock Road and Conlin Road / Garrard Road. The reason for some of these changes according to the article here is record-breaking ridership levels — especially this fall — exceeded pre-pandemic levels. We’re talking about 1.5 million monthly passengers, three of our PULSE routes accounting for 40 per cent of boardings and On Demand service that has become so popular with employees of a major distribution company in north Whitby that we now need scheduled service on Conlin Road. We’re providing record levels of transit service across the region. Now I have been on many buses, or seen many buses, that have been quite full at certain times of the day. So these changes do make sense but I believe there needs to be other changes to make service better. The 920 for instance should operate 7 days a week so that both Amazon facilities get service on the weekends. I have also thought that the 905 trips to Uxbridge should be changed completely. The 905 should only operate from Whitby station to Windfields farms. A new route could be designed to operate from Harmony to Uxbridge. It could run up Harmony to Conlin and then over to Simcoe so it operates close to the college and then goes North up Simcoe. This route in my opinion should operate every 60 minutes all day. I know a lot of the focus of these changes is to get more bus service to areas that are very busy as it is, but there needs to be new services that generate new ridership as well. Currently there is a lot of new residential developments being built west of Westney Rd along Taunton. There is also the Whites Road extension between Taunton and Highway 7, where there are plans to build many new houses. I think a route should operate from Pickering parkway terminal and go along Kingston west to Whites, north to Taunton and then the bus could operate east to Harwood road and then down to Station street and Fairall st to Ajax GO. It could extend the Harwood bus and serve a whole new stretch of Taunton road. Also the 916 could run back to its old routing by going to the Ajax GO station. It could operate along Rossland and go to Westney and down to the Ajax Station. The 920 route could be rerouted along Brock Road to Harmony and across that way. By shortening the 916 it could free up at least one bus and that could be added to the 920 to increase service on that route. Improving service in Durham region is crucial for when the GO expands to Bowmanville. There will be a lot of development plans in Bowmanville, plus lots of new construction for residential developments in Downtown Oshawa, especially along Simcoe Street near First Avenue. That area is going to be where the new Ritson station will be built and by adding new transit services across the region it will allow for new riders to take advantage of the system, and allow people to travel to many other areas in the GTA. Let’s hope that by the end of the year some of the suspended routes are restored and hopefully there are new routes added as well. Some of the new routes might be able to redirect riders from some of the overcrowded buses, and also to increase ridership in the region. Related Ontario DRTDurham Region TransitPulseschedule changes